First Direct Offset Base Rate Tracker Mortgage www.firstdirect.com

I applied for a FirstDirect mortgage as they had a good deal on at the time, 1.59% on 85% LTV. After the first ~60 minutes of applying, all seemed fairly well (mid March). A couple of days later, on a Sunday morning at least which is good, their call centre called to run through the initial personal affordability checks etc, and at the end of the call all seemed well. That was the last point as such unfortunately.

I asked when my Mortgage in Principle would be offered, and was advised that this would be maybe a week or two after my documents were received. Great, ok, I can live with that (the Estate Agents needed MIP before they would submit the memorandum to solicitors). Problem 1: the sheer amount of documents they needed! And they wouldn't even accept originals, they have to be certified copies - from a solicitor, teacher, member of parliament etc. Now I don't know any of the above so had to pass these onto the Docs to sign (at cost to myself) and wait around 10 days for their return. To make things worse the email they sent included a requirement for documents we didn't need to provide - which took additional days trying to figure out as it was difficult to get through to FD on the phone (regularly 15 minutes in the queue).

Right so, got the documents back, sent them through, called FD a few days later to be told they can see my documents have been scanned, so it'll be around 2 weeks before they process them.....!??! Asked for it sooner but "all customers would say the same so why are you any more important?". Ho hum, we're far enough along now that I think, just stick with it. When can I have my MIP? "Oh we don't do those ... we only offer you the mortgage when we're ready! Would you like to pay the booking fee now?" No I would not.

In the meantime, I spoke with my estate agents and we ran a mortgage application with another provider JUST to get the MIP. 20 minutes? Done. MIP given and passed to the sellers estate agents. Presume all is well and then have a very busy 2 weeks where I can't chase up the progress.

FD then call me back at the **start of May** and say they need to speak to me at work to verify I work there. Wait - I've already sent you three payslips, a P60 and 3 bank statements with my pay from that company! Not to mention I'm on rota off followed by nights meaning that the 1: I'm not there and then 2: reception team won't be there! So the wait will be even longer!

Another 2 calls later trying to sort this out and I've simply asked them to send my documents back and do one. I applied for an equally good rate which has become available via another company and within 3 days have a MIP, all my ID checks have been done (there's this wonderful thing called the "internet" that contains "credit checks" and "ID verification"), and a valuer is already booked in with the seller.

In short? I wouldn't waste my time again

I have a First Direct offset tracker and it is fantastic. I have a rate of 1.89% above base rate so am currently paying 2.39%. I have banked with them for 20 years now have always loved the fact that you can talk straight away to a real English person day or night. In fact when I was filling in my mortgage application I was able to talk to someone on the mortgage department at 12:15 in the morning. However, there was a bit of a delay in the application caused by the fact that my other half was not a First Direct customer and had to have new joint account set up with me which required the usual proofs (p60 or bank statements). This was a bit irritating as he had been customer with HSBC (formerly Midlands) for 20 years and they are supposed to be the same company.

Anyway the deal is that we have to pay the money off in 20 years but as long as we are ahead of the plan we can alter how much we pay off. At the moment we have paid off an extra £10,000 so if in the future we are a bit broke we can take a mortgage holiday (I know with an offset it is just as efficient to have it in cash in the offset accounts but it is tempting to spend it and it is nice to see the mortgage go down). On-line I can see exactly how much I have in each account, how much I owe and what interest I will be paying next month.

Overall would thoroughly recommend this product especially if you are already a First Direct customer and won't have to go through all the hoops.

no stars for wasting my time .... I applied for an offset mortgage with first direct, after an hour or so on the phone everything seemed fine but after sending in the forms they declined to offer me the mortgage because the house was too far from my place of work !!! waste of time and cost me alot of money .